In this lesson, we are looking at the structure

-(으)ㄹ수밖에없다

[-(eu)l su ba-kke eop-da]. This is a combination of the two grammar points that were already introduced in our pre-

vious lessons. In Level 2 Lesson 17, we introduced how to use -(으)ㄹ수없다 to say that youcan’t do something, and in Level 3 Lesson 18, we looked at how 밖에 is used in negative sen

-tences to express the meaning of “only”.

-(으)ㄹ수없다

[-(eu)l su eop-da] = can’t

ex) 할수없어요. [hal su eop-seo-yo.] = You can’t do it.ex) 볼수없어요. [bol su eop-seo-yo.] = You can’t see it.

밖에

+ negative sentence = only

ex) 이거밖에없어요. [i-geo ba-kke eop-seo-yo.] = I only have this. (lit. I don’t have anything

other than this.)

ex) 3명밖에안 왔어요. [se myeong ba-kke an wa-sseo-yo.] = Only three people came.When you put those two grammar points together, 밖에 [ba-kke] goes after 수 [su] because 밖에 is used with nouns and 수 [su] is a noun that means “way”, “idea”, “method” or “solution”.→ -(으)ㄹ수없다 +밖에 = -(으)ㄹ수밖에없다

-(으)ㄹ수밖에없다

literally means “other than THIS, there is nothing else you can do”or “outside of these options, there is none”. When naturally translated to English, it means “canonly” or “to have no other choice but to” do something.

Examples

1.   사다→살수밖에없다

2. 포기하다→포기할수밖에없다

= to have no other choice but to give up

3. 좋아하다→좋아할수밖에없다

= can only like, can’t not like

-(으)ㄹ수밖에없다

can also mean “it is more than natural” or “it is obviously expected”to do something or to be in a certain state.

Examples

1. 어렵다→어려울수밖에없다

= to be obviously expected to be difficult

2. 비싸다→비쌀수밖에없다

= to be obviously going to be expensive

3. 시끄럽다→시끄러울수밖에없다

= to be bound to be noisy

Sample Sentences

1. 어제술을많이마셔서, 오늘피곤할수밖에없어요.

[eo-je su-reul ma-ni ma-syeo-seo, o-neul pi-gon-hal su ba-kke eop-seo-yo.]= He drank a lot yesterday, so he’s bound to be tired today

= He drank a lot yesterday, so there is no way that he can not be tired.

2. 미안하지만이렇게할수밖에없어요.

[mi-an-ha-ji-man i-reo-ke hal su ba-kke eop-seo-yo.]= I am sorry but there is no other choice for me but to do it this way.

3. 그럴수밖에없어요.

[geu-reol su ba-kke eop-seo-yo.]= It’s bound to be that way.= It’s expected to be that way.= That can’t be helped.

4. 또이야기할수밖에없어요.

[tto i-ya-gi-hal su ba-kke eop-seo-yo.]= I have no other choice but to talk to them (about this) again.

5. 걱정이될수밖에없어요.

[geok-jeong-i doel su ba-kke eop-seo-yo.]

= Of course I am worried.

= I’m obviously going to be worried.

** You can replace -(으)ㄹ수밖에 없어요 with 안 -(으)ㄹ 수가없어요 in mostcases.